Help launch 'Tar Sands Messiah'- A film by Tim Moen

In which a Fort McMurray environmentalist goes to Los Angeles to render judgement on the movie industry and shut down the city for its crimes against the environment and teach them the more productive, eco-friendly ways of his people. Along the way he will bring them his own technology ie. the “Smart Car” of dog sledding so they may rid themselves of internal combustion engines, a carbon capture device for joggers so that their excess CO2 emissions need not contribute to global warming.

A satirical movie with a serious message; is demonizing, condescension and hypocrisy the way to solve problems?

Who is Tim Moen?

Tim Moen is a filmmaker and proud resident of Fort McMurray, AB in the heart of the Canadian Oil Sands. Over the past decade Tim has filmed around the world in places like Africa and Japan and has worked locally with environmentalists and celebrities like Neil Young. Troubled by what he sees as the biased narrative that many of his clients come here to film, Tim has loudly defended his community and the Oil Sands industry in the media including Sun News, the CBC and the Huffington Post.

What is Tar Sands Messiah?

Tar Sands Messiah is a film that explores this divisive narrative from the perspective of a Fort McMurray resident who goes to Los Angeles with the same attitude, frame of reference, environmental concern, condescension and judgment that one typically finds in activists that come to Fort McMurray. Tim will poke light hearted fun at this narrative as he tries to save Los Angeles from itself, shut down the movie industry, and explore the environmental blight which is far worse than the oil sands on every environmental measure.

Much of the film will be light hearted and obviously satirical. Tim will bring citizens of LA the Smart Car of dogsleds (his lap dog attached to a childs sled) so they can get rid of internal combustion engines. He will bring them a carbon capture device for runners so that they don’t have to contribute to global warming with their excess CO2 emissions while running. He will bring oil sands reclamation technology so they can return their suburban sprawl and mini-tailings ponds (swimming pools) back to a pristine state of nature.

Hoping to model the way forward to a more constructive narrative, Tim will then turn his cameras to what is alive and inspirational. He will compare community spirit, environmental solutions, and the products that both Fort McMurray and Los Angeles create that improve the lives of so many people worldwide. The film will highlight how problem fixation is itself a big part of the problem we face in this world and that shifting our focus to solutions will give us a better chance of creating the kind of future we want to see.

How you can help

On September 19th, we will be officially unveiling the launch of the crowdfunding campaign at www.tarsandsmessiah.com. We are looking to raise $63,000, symbolic of Highway 63, so that Tim and his crew can go to L.A to film, produce and publish the movie.

I will always remember my first real encounter with an environmental group, I forget the name. However, I was staying at the Snow King, I figured how often do you go to Yellowstone lets splurge. Its about a 250/ night hotel, there happened to be an environmental group having its annual get-together and I assume big push for donations drive. Anyway, one night down in the bar I decided to talk some of the people up about their organization. I ran into one of their big-wigs and we discussed the history of their organization. They had been together for 7 years and in fact I was witnessing the 7th annual fund raiser at the Snow King. He then showed me the projects they hoped to get off the ground, at that point in 2009 they were still raising money to begin their life changing work.
So I quickly calculated, 7 years, times 1 week stay, times 250/ night. Basically in 7 years they had spent $12250 per member who attended this fund raiser. I am guessing, that senior people have their costs paid for, along with the largest donors. In 2009, they had about 100 people in their group, lets say 50 were paid for by the organization. Thats $87500 just in hotel expenses, maybe because they are do-gooders they got a special rate.
Just looking at their money spent on a week long vacation in Jackson Hole, Wyoming I’m shocked not one of their projects is funded or off the ground.

Not my cup of tea. I prefer to see it wrangled with on the serious pages of research. This kind of stunt on a grand stage just doesn’t seem to me to be an effective way of returning to unbiased, detached from money sources, science on climate components and weather pattern variations.

“I prefer to see it wrangled with …”
What is “it” in that sentence?
If “it” is “climate science” I can see your point but I think his “it” (the point of the movie) is something more along the lines of “the hypocrisy, conceit, and deceit commonly exhibited by special interest groups in pursuit of their particular noble cause” and I’d have to say ridicule especially through satire is most appropriate.

in Canada we have open pit and insitu oil extraction… but the industry is regulated to remove the topsoil, then when the work is done, they must replace the topsoil and replant vegetation… many old mines are now lakes, marshland and forests and they look beautiful and support a wide variety of fish and game… that makes sense to me! Responsible industry means jobs and tax revenue and economic prosperity.﻿

Right On!
And, isn’t the removal of oil sand a public service to clean up the environment. The oild sands are like Gia’s environmental disaster that we are cleaning up. Maybe Gia needs to have mandatory environmental policies imposed on her.

Jeff, you are absolutely correct. Tar sands are a natural oil spill left for too long.
While we’re at it, we should clean up the natural oil seeps in Santa Barbara. Could be done with off shore, directional wells.
See http://www.soscalifornia.org/the-facts/

The oil sands mining operations are not an environmental surface-oil clean-up operation. Before oil sands mining, the bitumen was below the earth’s surface covered by a layer of overburden at least several metres thick, except for rare seeps such as on the riverbanks of the Athabasca River.
The area of the surface tailings ponds created from oil sands mining operations is much greater than the area of any hydrocarbons on the earth’s surface before the mining operations. The rate of creation of new tailings ponds area is much greater than the area rate of reclamation.

I like the South Park version, when Kyles dad becomes pious and smug after buying a hybrid (facetiously called a pious) and moves to San Francisco after the residents of South Park respond badly when he writes them fake parking tickets for polluting the planet. Stan Marsh, who, desperate to get Kyle to return, writes a “gay” song to persuade everyone to suddenly buy hybrids.
Unfortunately the park ranger is outraged by this and shows Stan the blanket of “smug” that is beginning to envelope the small town, the result of the smugness that exudes from everyone who drives hybrids. It can only end badly when the San Francisco smug blanket merges with the one over South Park and reaches critical mass after a smug cloud from George Clooney tips it over the edge.

Well, they are cleaning the oil out of the tar sands and returning topsoil and vegetation, but LA will say this dirty oil is then used in LA and elsewhere to ruin the environment. “Environmentalists” don’t like oil, period. It doesn’t matter where it comes from.

To be called Tar the material must be processed. Calling the oil sands Tar is actually a term by the enviros to mislead the public.
“Tar is a substance obtained from a variety of organic materials through destructive distillation.[1][2][3] Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat.[3] It is black, and a mixture of hydrocarbons and free carbon.[4] Production and trade in pine-derived tar was a major contributor in the economies of Northern Europe[5] and Colonial America. Its main use was in preserving wooden vessels against rot. The largest user was the Royal Navy. Demand for tar declined with the advent of iron and steel ships.”
I think they also used it to caulk the seams to stop leaks.

I’ve spent a lot of time in old unreclaimed mining districts of California and Alaska. I have spent time in L.A. and other cities of the world. I would take a spent out mined area over Urban sprawl any day of the week. pg

Hi Jeff, due to some of the restrictions that Indiegogo places on Paypal, it takes time for Paypal to get officially linked to the campaign. That being said, in the mean time, you can donate on the page using a credit card. Thanks- David Clement, Project Manager

I hope Neil Young has a sense of humor, but I know he doesn’t. He’s as serious as a heart attack about the “rape” of Fort. McMurray and the “buying off” of the local “First Nations” folk. I heard him on a liberal CBC talk show (carried evenings on my NPR station) and he got into a cat fight with the host, who dared question Young on his deciding for the natives what’s best for them (“defiant and destitute” far better than “docile and wealthy” – a fate worse than death.) Of course, it’s all about saving the planet from cheap energy, and reverting to a neolithic existence, don’t you know.

Good plan, sanctimonious babies indeed.
There will be a flood of this type of satire as the Cult implodes.
For when there is nothing that is not caused by global warming, feel your guilt BS, then eventually people do get fed up and respond in kind.
The Eco-nasties have set the bar very low, too low in my opinion but they will reap as they have sown.
Preaching hatred from a position of great self satisfaction is a near guarantee of receiving your comeuppance.
The UN and their agents laid it on thick and heavy, now they quiver in terror.
They project their personalities upon the rest of humanity and except a brutal end.
I would hate to disappoint them.
Nothing is more brutal for parasites, than cutting off their food. End all funding for the UN,NGO’s and Corporate Environmentalists.Government must be prevented from handing out taxpayers money for any causes.
Starve the beast at all levels.

This reminds me I only have a few days left to catch the movie “Requiem for a Glacier” now playing at the Evergreen Cultural Center in Coquitlam, B.C.

Requiem for a Glacier is an expansive video installation by Paul Walde, featuring a four-movement oratorio performed by an orchestra and chorus atop the Farnham Glacier in the Jumbo Glacier area of eastern British Columbia.
The collection of five glaciers that make up the ancient features of Jumbo, or “Qat’muk”, are left over from the last ice age. Now, they are under immediate threat from climate change and resort development.
Over thirty-seven minutes, Requiem for a Glacier features panoramic glacier views along with the sounds and images of the oratorio, as performed by the Requiem Volunteer Orchestra and Chorus (conducted by Ajtony Csaba of the University of Victoria Symphony).

I discovered this movie while bicycle riding touring around Coquitlam and checking on the progress of the multi-billion dollar Sky Train Evergreen line being built near my neighborhood. Quite frankly, I was appalled and am considering trying to see if I can get Marc Moreno’s new movie to be played at the Evergreen Center.

Pam,
I look at it this way. These sanctimonious people from Hollywood constantly trash and speak badly of the OIL Sands, even to the point of falsely claiming that oil production from the sands will be the demise of man as it is called a tipping point. Why let them trash your home while not playing offense on their obvious sins.
Of course that crowd are the among the biggest hypocrites, since they have a huge carbon footprint and it is quite a feat to turn the discussion around and show the often nasty, phony Hollywood crowd that they are a big part of the so called problem.
I think it is ironic to let them know that they are a big part of the phony problem and their irrational behavior that has filled their shallow minds.
For the record, I spent a full year in Ft McMurray Alberta in the 70’s, starting up the second and then largest oil sands plant. It was a cold experience (minus 40), but very rewarding since there were many engineering challenges to overcome. One fact that every one learns is that the sand does not fit in the hole it came out of because the oil lubricates the sand and allows it to pack more tightly. It is simple sole mechanics. Also as already stated the clean up is very environmentally oriented by restoring the lands w/o oily sands.
Finally I met many fine Canadians during my stint there and they are not the villains as claimed by the progressive crowd and certain leaders in Washington who have monster carbon footprints.
Mr president approve the Keystone pipeline, be a good neighbor while reducing our dependence on imported oil. The Canadians are our best friends.

Anthony, I thought that this would be fun, and was happy to throw $CAN25 or so at it. BUT, but, but I won’t: that is to say, I won’t reveal my name address and credit card number to someone/something I’d not previously heard of. Further to that, even had I been prepared to trust in this site’s good faith, how could I enter my other details? It is cursed with that peculiar arrogance which only allows addresses, for example, to be expressed in a format appropriate to North America. Mr Moen needs to do some work.

I’m one of those who won’t make online payments except through PayPal. May I suggest that whoever is the link between WUWT and this project (David Clement?), gets Anthony to post an update when the PayPal option becomes available.

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